InXile Entertainment - Torment successor set in Monte Cook's Numenera

January 9th, 2013, 22:49

In a must-read interview at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Inxile boss Brian Fargo reveals their spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment will be set in Numenera, a new, original Monte Cook setting.
If you recall, when the Torment mark expired InXile registered it and hired Colin McComb to lead the efforts on a spiritual successor. They have now decided to collaborate with Monte Cook, celebrated PnP designer and one of the original authors of Planescape along with Colin, for this spiritual successor.
First, a quick snip from the Numenera website:

Numenera is a science fantasy roleplaying game set in the far distant future. Humanity lives amid the remnants of eight great civilizations that have risen and fallen on Earth. These are the people of the Ninth World. This new world is filled with remnants of all the former worlds: bits of nanotechnology, the dataweb threaded among still-orbiting satellites, bio-engineered creatures, and myriad strange and wondrous devices. These remnants have become known as the numenera.

…and from the RPS interview:

RPS – What are the stand-out aspects of Numenera for you, in terms of suiting your dev plans? How much is about the setting and how much the roleplaying mechanics?
Fargo: A Torment game requires big ideas and a truly exotic setting in order to explore the underlying thematic elements. Colin described it best when he said “Torment’s themes are essentially metaphysical, getting to the heart of what it means to be alive and conscious, and it’s easier to ask those questions in a setting that is far removed from the familiar.” Numenera is such a setting, and it has tremendous potential to cultivate those ideas. We won’t have faeries or devils, but we’ll have diabolical creatures from far dimensions with schemes beyond human imagination. We won’t have gods, but we’ll have creatures who have lived for millennia with the powers of creation and destruction at their fingertips, with abilities honed over countless lifetimes. We won’t have other planes per se, but we’ll have pathways to hostile worlds and bizarre landscapes and ancient machines that catapult the players into places where the ordinary laws of nature no longer apply. In terms of role-playing mechanics, we won’t be attempting to literally translate the Numenera tabletop system into electronic form. However, its gameplay mechanics are very solid and include several components that will lend themselves to great (and innovative) cRPG gameplay. It’s great to have the Numenera rules as a starting point and to be working with Monte to adapt them for a cRPG.

Originally Posted by Asdraguuhl
Ever since Kickstarter happened, my gaming future seems to get brighter and brighter .

I was not aware of this recently Kickstarted Numenera but I really like this setting. A Torment themed RPG within this setting simply sounds fantastic!

Yeah the setting seems really interesting. It's heavily reminiscent of Jack Vance's "The Dying Earth" - which makes a lot of sense since that's pretty much where the original DnD games lifted their entire magic system (mechanics and spell nomenclature not abstract lore).

Originally Posted by joxer
Those stuff is definetly a must read. Exotic… Bizzare… Etc…
Can't wait for more news.

Why are they doing this anyway? I feel like stoned now. Cmon, finish the details, show it to us and let us just drool over it for days. They're not fair!

I have a feeling that if they had announced this with the Numenera kickstarter still ongoing, it would have broken a million easily because people like us would have gobbled it up as background material for the new torment game.

In the meantime, seriously consider giving some of the "Dying Earth" stories a read. Should give an idea of just how weird the setting might be, and they're also pretty damned important influences in modern scifi and fantasy. To that extent George R.R. Martin, Dan Simmons, and about a dozen other popular scifi and fantasy authors have written tribute stories (a collaborative "Tales of the Dying Earth" collection of short stories) and also referenced him in their more well known works.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
For such a huge project they asked for a very small amount of money. I will hold judgement till I see the final project.

You do realize there has not been any kickstarter for this video game yet right? There has been one for the PnP RPG from which the game will get its setting; for one of those kickstarters the 500k+ garnered is pretty sizeable.

Originally Posted by jhwisner
You do realize there has not been any kickstarter for this video game yet right? There has been one for the PnP RPG from which the game will get its setting; for one of those kickstarters the 500k+ garnered is pretty sizeable.

Good had me worried about it. Thanks for clarifying the kickstarter. I thought it was for the game.

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Quite a surprise on all fronts—-I'd have a hard time thinking the KS won't launch sometime this year though since they went to the trouble to do the interview and all to be highly conservative. Will not be surprised if they try to jump in for Spring/Summer as that was when some of the various failed Winter KS bids cited as the next Active Time.

I hope this snowballs, and we get all kinds of crazy stuff going forward like a new Tunnels & Trolls PC RPG to follow the good favor their new T&T P&P Edition is getting on KS and pretty much any other wild entrances along similar lines. Never been a better time to get P&P properties represented in PC gaming!

I really like the potential of the Numenera setting. System-wise its got a good core for cRPG, but it's not ideal in and of itself (it is focused on GM-agency and simplicity, neither of which translate 1-on-1 to PC). I already discussed that stuff with the core team and they've got a lot of flexibility.

I'm excited!

Originally Posted by jwmeep
What are the chances of them waiting until October 2013 before doing the Kickstarter? I'd like to see if InExile can produce before I send more money their way.

Honestly? Not too big. inXile has a core team in place right now. Colin, Kevin, Adam, working out the outline, setting up the basics, but as it rolls into pre-production they need more writers, concept artists, etc., even before Wasteland 2 is finished. That all costs money. inXile has some of its own revenues but not a lot and they absolutely refuse to take a cent from Wasteland 2's budget (naturally). If it was feasible I think they'd wait until Wasteland 2 is out, but that would only be possibly by firing Colin, Kevin, Adam and putting the project on hold until then, and then try to get the team back together and start from pre-production. As Brian explained, that's just not an ideal way of doing things.

You're right to be concerned and I don't think anyone can object if you go "I'll wait and see for Wasteland 2 before pre-ordering", but at the same time they're stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to budgeting and project planning. They do need to do this or create a very unfavorable project rollover environment.

Fargo sure knows how to say the right words… I really like what he said about the game here, and the team sounds excellent. I get the feeling they have a clear vision of what they want to achieve here, more than PE did. I am also rather glad that this is a thematic or spiritual sequel rather than a direct sequel to PS:T, which told a complete story that really doesn't lend itself very well to a sequel, imho.